Leeds councillor’s finger ripped off by dog through letterbox

a Leeds councillor’s finger was ripped off by a Staffordshire Bull Terrier while she was delivering leaflets for the upcoming elections.

Coun Joyce Sanders was attacked by the dog while she was canvassing on a street in her Churwell ward in Morley.

The Morley Town councillor was rushed to Leeds General Infirmary after the end of her finger was bitten off during the attack.

Coun Sanders is now warning fellow councillors to be careful in the run-up to the election.

She said: “We were delivering as we normally do house-to-house. I went to put the leaflet in and I felt something tug.

“I got a terrible searing pain.

“I looked down through the letter box and I could see this Staffy. His jaw was clamped on my hand.

“He was pulling me in, the whole of my hand was going in the letter box. It was unbelievable.”

The next thing she knew, the dog had bitten the top of her middle right finger off to the first knuckle, which remained in her leather glove that laid on the ground inside the house.

Panic-stricken Coun Sanders called to her friend, who was canvassing with her, to knock on the door, where the dog’s mortified owner locked it in the lounge and helped to clear blood with towels after calling an ambulance.

Now recovering with weekly medical checks and physiotherapy, Coun Sanders wants to issue a warning to fellow councillors who are planning to deliver leaflets during the run-up to May 7.

“I’m not doing it anymore. I’ve done it for years and years,” she said.

The councillor also wants owners of pets which are thought to be aggressive to put a cage around their letter box and a “beware of the dog” notice on the door. Police have since ordered the owner of the dog which attacked her to do this following the incident.

Coun Sanders was shocked to find out that she was not the only councillor to lose part of her finger electioneering.

Derbyshire County Councillor Jean Innes suffered a similar grisly attack last month, when the top of her middle finger was also bitten off by a dog through a letter box.